So what was that?
There was nothing bad about "Master Lowry". But there was nothing particularly good about it, either. It was just kinda... there. But I get paid the big bucks (that's sarcasm, folks :) ) to talk about stuff that is kinda there, so here we go.
First we get the kind of vaguely 'eh opening that you see in a lot of superhero shows and comics. Something goes bad, the hero shows up, demonstrates his powers, saves the day, and then we never hear anything about what happened. It's like in the comics when Superman catches a falling train, or Flash puts out a burning building.
In this case, Black Lightning subdues a young super-strong Green Light Baby as she runs out of the hospital where the police took her. She picks up a dumpster, they prepare to taser her, BL shows up, convinces her to take his hand, and then shocks her unconscious.
Then we get on with the "real" episode. Despite the title, the whole bit with Lowry as the new Garfield principal is up and over in a few minutes. Jeff arrives at Garfield to meet with Lowry. Lowry is having metal detectors put up: the fiend! Lowry is kinda snarky to Jeff and kind of officious (of the "Call me Principal Lowry, not Mr. Lowry" variety), but Jeff is a little snarky to him, too. There's hardly enough there to warrant Lowry even being mentioned in the title, much less as "Master" Lowry. He's not British, and he's not literally or figuratively a slave driver.
On other fronts, Lynn and Agent Odell continue to snarl at each other in a genteel kind of way. Lynn wants a real scientist working for her, and Odell gives her Dr. Helga Jace (Jennifer Riker). Who did some unpleasant experiments that required ten people to get one foot cut off. the eleventh one died. Jace is a character from the comics, an elderly scientist who looks nothing like Ms. Riker. Whether we're supposed to think Odell is sabotaging Lynn's work--he says he isn't, but he's eeevvviiillll--or not I'm unclear. Jace is pretty well secured with an electronic implant that keeps her from leaving the lab. And if she does try to leave, it sets off an alarm that brings the guards running.
Anissa is juggling her love life with Grace, while stealing money from a crime lord to help Reverend Holt (Clifton Powell). She goes to Peter for some advice and later sniper-rifle coverage. I'm not sure why, but okay. This gives us an action sequence, and unlike the hospital battle above, it's relevant to the plot.
Jennifer meets a woman named Perenna (Erika Alexander). Who I guess is Green Light Baby. Or a meta. Or something. Lynn and Jeff apparently sent her to meet Jennifer in a park (even though I though Jennifer was confined to the house). Perenna grabs Jennifer's arm and projects her into a mindscape within Jennifer's mind. Which is kinda of rude. Jennifer takes this about as well as I would, storms off, and confronts her parents about it. How she knew her parents knew Perenna (or how they knew what Perenna could do), I don’t know.
Eventually Jennifer decides to go back to Perenna and Perenna creates a mindscape of a beauty salon. And they work on confining Jennifer's emotions so she can get a handle on her powers. Which initially involve creating a mindscape box. But then switch to Perenna revealing Jennifer's innermost fear, of bursting with energy.
Inspector Bill turns up to investigate the death of Detective Summers from last week. Summers' car was torched and apparently only one man in all of Freeland has the expertise to torch a car. Bill can't have the police talking to the arsonist, so he asks Jeff to get involved since Bill knows Jeff is BL. I don't know where they're going with the whole Jeff/Bill thing. So Bill isn't too thrilled with Jeff keeping the secret of his vigilante act from him, but is willing to ask BL for help. Maybe if we had seen more of their friendship? I think we've had more scenes of them at odds then of being best buds.
BL questions the arsonist and we get a third action sequence as BL magnetically uses a propane tank as a shield after arson guy shoots a flamethrower a him. The hero wins and the arsonists directs him to Khalil. BL visits Khalil's mother and has her set up a meeting between him and her son. They have a fight ad BL catches one of Khalil's darts and then just stares at it as Khalil runs off.
Throughout the episode, Tobias has been putting Khalil through some sadistic paces. At the end, Tobias goes to see a mausoleum. Bill and his men arrive and arrest him, and says someone dropped a dime on Tobias. I'm not sure if it's a deliberate plan on Tobias' part, or if Khalil did the dime-dropping. Khalil seems to be the only possible suspect.
Oh, and Peter is at home when he hears something in the hallway. He grabs a gun, goes out, and... blows a Girl Scout away with her box of cookies. Nah, he doesn't. Instead Kara's body is in the hallway and it looks like her stomach has been torn open. Why the killer waited until she got to Peter's hallway and left the body there isn't clear, either.
So "Master Lowry" had a lot of moving parts. But none of them seemed to connect to each other. And sometimes the connections are assumed. Like how Lynn and Jeff know a mindscape-sculpting meta who shows up without any explanation or backstory.
There were some good parts: the sibling rivalry between Jennifer and Anissa is always good. Tobias has a few scenes where he is a sadistic jerk "training" Khalil. There's a bit where Holt prays along with a masked Anissa thanking God for his doings. How many times have you seen Oliver or Barry praying with a reverend?
But overall, it was an awfully "average" episode of Black Lightning. The good parts mentioned above are the good parts that they do pretty much every episode. BL needs to get out of the rut that it's already in three episodes into the season, or it's going to become "just another" CW superhero show.
That's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think
Written by Gislef on Oct 24, 2018
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